Hey, I've got a few things going on, so these might be coming a little slower from me than they have in the past. The American Presidential primaries are coming to New York state, and I may be getting involved if Gov. Romney brings his campaign here. If so, I may even have to skip or move down the line for Round 7; I'll let you know if that's the case. Anyway, I'll try to get the 1599 briefing and save file up for Lordling or Dell within 18 hours or so, to keep things within the times allotted by the rules as much as possible. Until then, here's an study of late 16th century Ottoman history that I was able to dig up with a little work. Enjoy. 
The Fall of the Ottoman Empire
The Second Partition: 1589-1597
In 1589, the Ottoman Empire had been severely weakened. Once the dominant force of the Anatolian peninsula, recent wars had lost the Turkish Empire the wealth of Macedonia and Anatolia and divided their remaining lands into little more than a loose conglomeration of harbors and fortresses. Lines of communication and supply were difficult to maintain. Sitting among a strong Safavid Empire to their east, a massive Austria to the west, and a rapidly expanding Russia in the north, enemies threatened every border.
By 1590, the Ottoman nightmare had come true yet again as the Shah Abbas of the Safavid Empire, announcing "as we have purged heresy from the East, so shall we do in the West," amassed troops in Anatolia, preparing an invasion of the center of the vast Ottoman state. While history has judged this as a holy war, one of many undertaken by the Safavid state during the sixteenth century, the political aims behind the Shah's actions and timing cannot be ignored. Since the Safavid takeover, the young Shiite state spent much of its history in the shadow of their powerful Ottoman neighbors. Even after much of the sixteenth century brought growth and expansion in the east, the leaders of the Safavid state still took care to tread lightly to the west, as the wealth and technological superiority of their Ottoman neighbors kept them continually off balance. This dynamic was overthrown with the peace of 1571, which saw the Safavids, victorious over an Ottoman State undermanned and overpowered in a two-front war, solidify their gains with the addition of wealthy Turkish lands.
Despite the gains of 1571, Shah Abbas was not content, as their gains in Anatolia did not include a Mediterranean port. When faced with a merchants guild complaining yet again, over the Portuguese refusal to allow their trade in Al Kharam, Abbas blamed not the Portuguese, but the Ottoman situation, arguing that the Christian powers of Europe do not show proper respect to the glory of Persia because of his inability to build a Mediterranean fleet. Furthermore, Abbas feared increased Austrian involvement in the fall of the Turkish state. One of many monarchs unsettled in the Era of Austrian Expansion, Abbas worried of an Austrian landing at Izmir, and a possible direct border with the overgrown empire on a weakened front.
Therefore, citing the necessity to stamp out the Sunni heresy in the West as a proper Casus Belli, Abbas declared war on the Ottoman Empire in the early days of 1590. By the way, at this time the Safavid Empire was ironically leading an alliance dedicated to the protection of the backward Mameluk state that was itself among the dwindling number of remaining Sunni states. Unsurprisingly, Abbas chose not to include his allies on this crusade.
The war began with a coordinated assault on Smyrna, Kastamonu, and Trebizond. Upon the announcement of open hostilities among the two empires a small Safavid force of just over 1,000 men, unknown to the Shah still stationed in the Ottoman province of Daghestan, found themselves surrounded my an Ottoman army five to six times their size. Unprepared and underpowered, the Safavid force nevertheless held together to defeat the Ottoman home guard. This first battle would foreshadow the fates of the Safavids and Ottomans in this bitter war.
Though the Ottoman army was at this time technologically on par, if not slightly superior to the Safavid force, the increased morale of the Persian religious crusaders consistently carried the day in battle. The Ottomans, knowing that they would need to outmaneuver the Safavid army to have any hope of victory undertook the first opportunity to move their troops into Anatolia, which was left unoccupied by the invading Persian forces. Abbas was unconcerned with this as leading the men himself, he assaulted and broke the mountain fortress at Konya. Meanwhile, a similar siege brought the fall of the minimal fortress at Trabzon and sieges in Kastamonu and Smyrna continued.
While the bulk of the Ottoman force sat outside the gates of Ankara, the Safavid armies continued moving among their remaining territories. Many of the cities, minimally protected, were quickly overrun at once, while others were sieged and occupied. Furthermore, the Ottomans, understanding their Safavid enemies to have no naval power available in the war effort, left Constantinople undefended as they brought the remainder of their army into Anatolia. This misjudgment proved to be the final fatal flaw of Ottoman strategy as the Ottoman naval blockade was not maintained and Abbas siezed the first opportunity to move troops across the strait and begin sieging the glorious old city that was the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1591, the Ottoman nightmare continued as Naples declared war, bringing with them Poland. Shortly after Tsar Fyodor, sensing blood in the water, declared war with the intent of reclaiming rightful Russian lands along the Volga. The Ottoman Empire would quickly cede land to both of these enemies, giving Russia their claim on Ufa and making peace with Naples in exchange for the remaining Ottoman territory in Greece and in the Crimea. Meanwhile the distastrous war against the Safavids continued, as troops lifted the Ottoman occupation of Anatolia, repeatedly defeated their army, driving Ottoman forces into the Armenian mountains, as the siege of Constantinople continued. Shockingly, in 1594 even the small Georgian state of Imereti saw the Ottoman Empire as enough of a target to declare war.
With the fall of Constantinople in 1594, the Ottoman situation was so dire that an emissary was sent to Shah Abbas offering the secession of all Ottoman lands to the east of Antalya in exchange for peace. The offer was summarily dismissed, as such rapid expansion would completely destroy the already tarnished reputation of the Safavid Empire, without giving Abbas the prize he so zealously desired to begin with - Smyrna. It was at this time that the Shah, made aware that their Ottoman enemy was 99% defeated, sought peace on his terms. The Ottoman government was at this time in exile on the island of Rhodes, the only land on which the Ottoman flag flew sovereign.
The terms of the Peace of 1594 were on the surface quite lenient. The Ottomans would cede only the one valuable province of Smyrna. It was then made clear that as this was, from the beginning, a religious crusade, it was also understood that the Ottoman state would recant all previous heresies, recognize Shah Abbas of Persia as the sole rightful heir to Muhammad and Caliph of Islam and take all necessary efforts to promote and protect this understanding of the faith within its borders. It was then obvious to the Sultan that this peace was far more damaging than was immediately apparent. The unfavorable peace would destroy Ottoman stability, already in a turbulent state following the overwhelming defeat. Furthermore, it would destroy the already fractured Turkish economy and force the Sultan to undertake the expensive and unpopular task of converting the remaining Ottoman lands. The peace was designed to isolate and irreparably cripple the remants of the Ottoman state, gradually bringing closer to being little more than another Safavid satellite.
Nevertheless, Sultan Murad III was aware that he had no choice. On December 13, 1594, he signed the agreement, ceded Smyrna and its harbors, and sent word to his cities in declaration of the new and formal understanding of the faith. One month later he was dead and the incompetent and gluttonous Mehmed III took his place.
Despite peace with the most zealous and damaging of its enemies, the long Ottoman nightmare was not yet over as the new Sultan took control in 1595.
The Ottoman Empire was poor, crippled, fractured, demilitarized, demoralized, and still at war with Imereti. The arrogant Mehmed III, unconcered with this remaining threat dismissed this war, considering his enemy too minor to be considered seriously. Obseqiously hoping to please his Safavid neighbors, he spent the remainder of the treasury toward beginning the conversion of Aleppo, considering the weakened force of four thousand men in the mountains of Armenia enough to frighten Imereti into making peace. His mistake in this regard certainly rivaled the worst misjudgments of his father.
The forces of Imereti, outnumbering the Ottomans in the region eight to one, split and sieged Daghestan and Trebizond late in 1595. In 1596, with both of these provinces occupied, Georgian forces drove into the Armenian mountains, overwhelmed the Ottoman army and overran the battle weakened fortress around Tblisi. They then siezed advantage of the Ottoman inability to respond by marching their army across the Halys into Kastamonu, rapidly sieging and occupying the city.
The Ottomans, barely able to maintain control of their unoccupied lands, had no choice but to capitulate to the demands of the treaty of Baku and cede all "Orthodox or rightfully orthodox Caucasian provinces and their cities." Signing the treaty in 1597, the Ottoman Empire was at peace for the first time in seven years. This Second Partition of Poland among Naples, Russia, Safavid Persia, and Imereti (the first being the wars and treaties of 1571) left the Ottoman Empire with half of the provinces it controlled in 1590, a severely weakened economy, and a fledgling but growing rival among the navies in the Eastern Mediterranean. The incompetent new Sultan was able to do little to combat the terrible instability among the remaining pieces of the once glorious Turkish Empire. It was at this time that Mehmed III felt certain that Ottoman Turkey, the conqueror of Rome, was moving toward its final decades.
